User blog:Star1954/Newcomer's Guide
Basic Info Eclipsis is a game that's balanced between building and fighting. Building requires a resource called "Iridium" which is extracted through various means. Almost everything uses or interacts with iridium, weapons use iridium as an ammunition source, machines use it as a power source, the only things that do not interact with it are structure blocks. Early Game Iridium is extracted through multiple methods, either from the ocean below, the atmosphere, or various crystals scattered around the map. During early game, players "pull" iridium from crystals, and (rarely) the ocean to construct extractors, tanks, and pipes. The main strategy is to pull from nearby crystals and construct a well-pump and a regular tank. The well-pump extracts iridium from the ocean through the well-pipe, a pipe that reaches from the ocean to the pump. The regular tank stores Iridium and has an interface for pushing and pulling it. Pipes transport iridium; a good pipe system is important for a good base. Weapons and tools are constructed by a machine called an arsenal. Arsenals produce various weapons, and one should be built as soon as possible. Turrets, walls, and shields provide early-game protection against attacks, while each has countermeasures. Garages produce hover-barges, and while they are just a simple platform, players can build on them. This has lead to the creation of mobile turrets, armored troop transports, mobile bases, etc. Hoverbarges can fly over single-high walls, and shields do not block hover barges either. Automatic turrets only fire at players, and not structures, making armored troop transports viable, however, barges are quite unstable and a single hit from an explosive weapon can send a barge flying. Walls are useless against barges, as barges can fly over them. Shields only protect from projectile attacks, like from artillery, barges can also fly past them. However, arc turrets can fire through walls, and therefore penetrate the defenses of an armored troop transport at close ranges. Expanding onto the mainland as soon as possible is recommended, however, the bridge built can be used against you. Boost Pads are a way of circumventing this problem. Mid-Game After having a good main starter base(Usually with condenser arrays), and a few smaller outposts, there are multiple strategies. Turtling is a method of building one base after another, slowly inching your way across to the enemy bases, however, it is slow. Skybasing is a mainly defensive method of building a hard to attack base and increasing the range of artilleries by a significant amount. Oceanbasing is a easy way to make a compact base, as one does not require nearly as much space for iridium extraction. Laser strikes from S.S.I.M.s are great against taking out a small section of an enemy base, especially a main pipe connecting to expensive looking things. Combat either is a quick pvp battle or a prolonged artillery bombardment. Rushers usually use explosives to quickly disable a base, while some people use a barge to quickly bombard an area with laser strikes; there are a lot of strategies out there. Destroying Bases Destroying enemy bases is quite simple in principle, however, it becomes more complex the better their defense, and depends on the strategy. Infantry Assault: Step 1: Disabling turrets Getting past turrets is easy, assuming a person has a barge. However, after leaving the safety of the barge, it becomes hard to quickly eradicate the enemy base. Point defense turrets can be a pain to deal with, their accuracy and rate of fire tears apart players not in cover, and their health pool makes them hard to destroy. Instead, disabling them is the next best thing. Targeting iridium pipelines can cut off turrets from their iridium supply, effectively neutralizing them. A quick way of taking down the pipelines is with a carefully targeted laser strike, otherwise, rockets or grenades will have to be used. Step 2: Neutralizing hostile forces Enemy players will try to stop an attack, while they can be dangerous, turrets are a larger threat. This is why eliminating enemy players is step 2. Killing a player isn't enough to stop them, they can just respawn. Instead, you'll need to disable their spawn point. It is recommended to bring a rocket launcher or a second laser strike to disconnect the spawn or destroy the distributor cap on it. Assault barges(see hover barges ) are quite useful in this step, as they automatically fire on enemies. Some bases may have second spawns, you'll have to eliminate those too. Long Range Bombardment: A long-range bombardment through artillery takes longer to set up and easier to prevent than an infantry assault. However, they allow for a relatively safe method of really screwing up an enemy's base. However, bombardment is usually used as a precursor to a mop-up assault. Step 1: Setting up a base within range A bombardment base should be minimal, with only basic turrets and walls for defense. They should be small enough to be powered by only 1 well pump, though in some cases when the enemy base has multiple shields, it might need some condensers to augment the extraction. The difficult part is setting it up in range of the enemy base, as you need to be somewhat close. Step 2: Bombardment A single artillery can deal enough damage to suppress 2 shields. Therefore, if an enemy base has more than 1 shield, it takes more artillery firing at once, and therefore more iridium extractors. To damage a base, the amount of artilleries you need firing at once(and teammates) is half the number of shields, rounded down, plus one. For example, 1 shield needs 0+1 artilleries to breach, while 2 shields require 1+1 artilleries to breach, 3 needs 1+1, 4 needs 2+1, etc. Bombardment is slow, it takes time to get through a fully charged shield, but once penetrated, the damage the artillery can do to pipes is insane. This in turn, disables the whole base if done correctly, and opens it up to a mop-up assault. The second method of bombardment is spamming cruise missiles Cruise missiles have insane range, so if someone builds a base with a few arsenals and condensers, they can bombard an enemy base with cruise missiles. The exact method is outlined in ElectricGun100's blog post. Useful Links *Sea base *Sky Base *Spawn Point Tips & Tricks *'PLAY THE TUTORIAL', this is the most important tip. *Shields are not useful early game. Get shields only after you've expanded onto the mainland. *A pretty base with no defenses is just asking to get blown up* *Get weapons early, this can help cut competition* *Walls and Shields can buy you time, but can't win you the game.* *Hoverbarges are great when paired up with distributors. *Laser strikes can penetrate shields if used inside the shield *Artillery is great for destroying shields, firing over walls, and wrecking havoc upon enemies. However, artillery is usually immobile and somewhat flimsy. *When using an assault rifle against an enemy minigun, stay at longer range. Minigun spread will cause fewer shots to hit you, while an assault rifle is much more accurate *Leave pipe caps on until ready to connect. *The starter island is easy to sink. Expand to the mainland quickly. *In-game tips